A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians eBook

is seated the body of the dead warrior with the
face toward the rising sun. The legs are
crossed and the arms kept extended by means of
sticks. The fat is then removed, and after
being mixed with red ochre is rubbed over the body,
which has previously been carefully denuded of
hair, as is done in the ceremony of initiation.
The legs and arms are covered with zebra-like
stripes of red, white, and yellow, and the weapons
of the dead man are laid across his lap.

The body being thus arranged, fires
are lighted under the platform, and kept up for
ten days or more, during the whole of which time
the friends and mourners remain by the body, and
are not permitted to speak. Sentinels relieve
each other at appointed intervals, their duty
being to see that the fires are not suffered
to go out, and to keep the flies away by waving
leafy boughs or bunches of emu feathers. When
a body has been treated in this manner it becomes
hard and mummy-like, and the strongest point
is that the wild dogs will not touch it after
it has been so long smoked. It remains sitting
on the platform for two months or so, and is then
taken down and buried, with the exception of the skull,
which is made into a drinking-cup for the nearest
relative. * * *

This mode of mummifying resembles somewhat that already
described as the process by which the Virginia kings
were preserved from decomposition.

Figs. 21 and 22 represent the Australian burials described,
and are after the original engravings in Wood’s
work. The one representing scaffold-burial resembles
greatly the scaffolds of our own Indians.

With regard to the use of scaffolds as places of deposit
for the dead, the following theories by Dr. W. Gardner,
United States Army, are given:

If we come to inquire why the American
aborigines placed the dead bodies of their relatives
and friends in trees, or upon scaffolds resembling
trees, instead of burying them in the ground,
or burning them and preserving their ashes in urns,
I think we can answer the inquiry by recollecting
that most if not all the tribes of American Indians,
as well as other nations of a higher civilization,
believed that the human soul, spirit, or immortal
part was of the form and nature of a bird, and
as these are essentially arboreal in their habits,
it is quite in keeping to suppose that the soul-bird
would have readier access to its former home or
dwelling-place if it was placed upon a tree or
scaffold than if it was buried in the earth;
moreover, from this lofty eyrie the souls of
the dead could rest secure from the attacks of
wolves or other profane beasts, and guard like sentinels
the homes and hunting-grounds of their loved ones.

This statement is given because of a corroborative
note in the writer’s possession, but he is not
prepared to admit it as correct without farther investigation.